No autumn season can pass by without a pumpkin pasta recipe for sure. I love making false cheese sauce, or spicy pasta sauces of it, and this time I just made it a little more Italian style.
Sage is one of the herbs that is rarely used, has a unique flavour, a beautiful light green colour and a handsome textured leaf. This is one of the greenies I love to fry up a little bit to give it a boost and also flavour my oils.
For that reason in this recipe I'm not using olive oil, as it would hide the character of the sage, but a neutral vegan butter from sunflower seeds. Also the butter will give extra richness and creaminess to our sauce and hug our gnocchi.
For the gnocchi:
500 potatoes boiled and peeled
1/2 cup flour
salt
Boiled the potatoes and take off the skin. Mash them well and when the potatoes are cooled down a bit start adding in the flour. You will get a soft but not sticky pasta dough, which you can roll into long rolls. When your rolls are like 1 cm thick, cut them into bite sized pieces and shape with a fork. Simply just place the fork on top of your piece of pasta, gently push it down and pull it towards you. The fork will make cute little indents where the sauce can grab on. When all your little pasta pieces are ready, boil a big pot of water with a generous pinch of salt. When it's all nice and bubbly pour in your gnocchi and let them cook for about 2-3 minutes, until they come up to the surface. Then strain them. I love to roll them around in some aalty vegan butter in a pan to evaporate the water from the surface and give them a little more texture, but you can skip this step.
For the sauce:
1 tbsp vegan butter
5-6 sage leaves
200 gr baked pumpkin or canned pumpkin (not pie filling just pure pumpkin puree)
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic pressed or finely chopped
salt, chilli
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
a squeeze of lemon
topping: pumpkin seeds, any vegan cheese
Start heating your butter with the sage leaves in it. Start with low, gentle heat, we don't want to burn them to death just give them a nice colour and infuse the butter. When the sage is turning dark green (in about 1 minute) pick them out immediately and set aside. Add in the onions and cook them until translucent and starting to brow. Add the garlic and the chilli, than the pumpkin puree. Let it cook for 5 minutes until the flavours come together, stir in the nutritional yeast and the lemon juice. It will give it a nice freshness and goes well with the sage.
Pour in the gnocchi and stir it well, so the sauce can cover all pieces well. Don't cook it any further, or else your pasta will become sticky and hard to eat.
Place the gnocchi on a bed of fresh greens, I used lambs lettuce, but of course you can add spinach or any greens you like, or you can totally skip this part, but eat your greens honey, so don't skip it please. Top it with the fried sage, you can tear it into small pieces and stir in too. Decorate with your toppings, I sprinkled on some pumpkin seeds, and enjoy the goodness.
Hope you enjoyed this recipe and will make it at home. If yes, don't forget to tag me or send me your creations, I'm always glad to see them :)
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